On Emmy night the only place filled with more glittery winged statuettes than the trophy room at the ceremony was HBO’s annual after party, thanks to a series of sweeping victories – 26 in all – by the pay cable network’s programming, including the miniseies John Adams, the telepic Recount, the drama In Treatment and the comedy Entourage.
West Hollywood’s Pacific Design Center served as the epicenter for HBO’s bash, converted into a swanky, sprawling blue-green Brazillian-themed party palace as a sea of stretch limos deposited an increasingly starry contingent of Emmy-toting actors, writers, directors and producers, as well a dozens of famous faces from film and television.
Appropriately for a glitzy blowout filled with free-flowing champagne and low-cut gowns, the gang from Entourage led the party pack: Adrian Grenier greeted In Treatment star Gabriel Byrne at the door and congratulated him on his Emmy victory effusively, along with Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen; Kevin Dillon and Jerry Ferrara huddled up with the show’s upcoming guest star Jamie-Lynn Sigler, the only member of The Sopranos family on hand; Kevin Connelly belied up to the bar alongside Stacy Keibler; and dapper Jeremy Piven worked the room with a stogie in one hand and an Emmy in the other before DJ RAVIDRUMS invited him to the platform high above the dance floor to play the drums for an appreciative crowd of stars that included the show’s sexiest guests, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Malin Akerman and Carla Gugino who swayed to the Piv’s beat.
The octogenarian “Mr. Warmth” himself, Don Rickles, held court at a table by the door alongside his shiny Emmy, circled by a crowd filled with HBO’s comedy superstars Larry David, Bill Maher, Cynthia Nixon, Jeff Garlin and Flight of the Conchords' Jemaine Clement and Brett McKenzie. Baby mama Amy Poehler parked her pregnant frame in a nook near the outdoor patio overlooking a specially created candlelit “pond” while hubby Will Arnett fetched food for her.
John Adams executive producer Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson cruised in with the latest addition to his already impressive trophy mantle, and Hanks told Hollywood.com that even with his abundance of awards each honor had special significance to him. Looking at each honor, “you go back and remember all of the people that were working on it with you,” Hanks said.
The Hanks fam slipped out early, just missing the miniseries’ Emmy-winning stars Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney, and as the night wore on the celebrity wattage only increased, with appearances by Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey, Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Michael C Hall, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, Tina Fey, Denis Leary, Mary-Louise Parker, John Krasinski, Hayden Panettiere, Sally Field and Lost-ies Daniel Dae Kim, Harold Perrineau, Jr. and Michael Emerson.
The party raged on into the wee hours – even Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaragosa took a turn on the drums! – and even after spending hours squeezed into her Christian Laboutin shoes all day, Kate Walsh danced the night away as long as she could. “I’ve gotta work tomorrow,” she lamented, “but not too early.”

Rainn Wilson trades one Office job for another as Robert “Fish” Fishman an over-the-hill 41 year-old insurance company worker who came right to the edge of eternal rock fame as the drummer of a struggling ‘80s band Vesuvius--until the other members kicked him out in order to get a record deal. Twenty years later the band has continued on to great success while Fish only manages to get fired from his latest job forcing him to move in with his sister (Jane Lynch) and family--including his nephew the nerdy Matt (Josh Gad) who happens to be a member of his own band A.D.D. Turns out the group needs a drummer and asks the long-in-the-tooth Uncle Robert to join them which he does reluctantly. Soon he is putting a soulful metal spin on their forgettable sound. The other members--Amelia (Emma Stone) and Curtis (Teddy Geiger)--aren’t too thrilled especially when he eventually makes a play for Curtis’ mom (Christina Applegate). But when he is caught rehearsing with the band in the nude (via a four-way webcam) the video finds itself on You Tube where A.D.D. suddenly becomes an exploitable phenom with the “naked drummer” as a draw. The inevitable tour leads to a climactic concert where revenge could be sweet when they share the bill with none other than--drumroll please--Vesuvius. Since Jack Black was apparently otherwise engaged Wilson gets a lucky break and turns what could be an annoying one-dimensional boob into a guy we can root for. He’s never less than believable as this aging buffoon who gets a second chance at the dream he always knew he deserved but blew 20 years earlier. Wilson playing a role not too dissimilar from his weekly gig as Dwight Schrute on The Office nicely balances the broad comedic requirements of the role with genuine pathos and a pretty good musical talent that makes the second coming of this 40-ish rock star oddly credible. It helps that he’s surrounded by an appealing cast of younger actors who make up the rest of the band. Stone (Superbad The House Bunny) is particularly appealing and completely winning. Geiger is the good-looking tortured lead singer while Gad makes us feel all the growing pains. Applegate is well cast but underused as Curtis’ mom and there are some nice--if too brief--moments from Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Jeff Garlin and the always hilarious Jane Lynch as Matt’s parents. Turning up for an ironic cameo is the original ousted drummer from The Beatles Pete Best (although the filmmakers swear this is not his story). Vesuvius is made up of comedy vets Fred Armisen Bradley Cooper and Will Arnett. but they are no Spinal Tap. Director Peter Cattaneo won universal praise and an Oscar nomination for his sleeper comedy hit The Full Monty and he’s probably got sleeper on his hand as he treads similar ground with the rags to riches scenario. He expertly displays how show business success can still come at a late age but not TOO late. Cattaneo wisely focuses on the humanistic qualities of the story blending some nice character work with the broader aspects of this School of Rock-style outing. It all could have gone south very quickly but the director keeps his cast in check and makes the story one that doesn’t ever run out of gas. This is the rare flick that both teens AND their parents will find riotously entertaining for wildly different reasons.

Comedy superstar Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay’s website FunnyOrDie.com has partnered with HBO in a synergistic effort to develop new series for the cable network and highlight its existing properties online.
“HBO just bought into the company,” McKay, Ferrell’s partner in Gary Sanchez Productions and the director of his films Talladega Nights and Step Brothers, told Hollywood.com. “They bought a share of it and now we’re going to do a lot of joint productions with them and the idea is that we have FunnyOrDie shows on there, and we use their material on our site, like Flight of the Conchords and stuff like that, so yeah, it’s pretty exciting.”
The website – which blew up big in 2007 thanks to the viral success of the video short “The Landlord,” in which Ferrell is berated by his drunken, potty-mouthed landlord, played by McKay’s two-year-old daughter Pearl – features original online shorts starring Ferrell and celebrity friends including John C. Reilly, Larry David, James Franco, Shia LaBeouf, Will Arnett and Jack McBrayer along with clips submitted by its users.
“We were approached by a group from [Palo Alto] that wanted to do a comedy website, and we just figured it would be a fun way to do sketches like we did on SNL and have a place for our friends to goof around and stuff, so that was a different approach,” said McKay.
McKay also said that some of FunnyOrDie’s original creations may also be developed as feature films, no matter how absurd they seem – like “The Green Team,” which features Ferrell, Reilly and McKay as a trio of surprisingly brutal environmentalists.
“Why not? Maybe we can get that going, yeah,” said McKay. “We’ll pitch it: sadistic environmentalists who go around beating people up – it’s very sellable.”
Reilly’s enthusiastic about the idea: “I want to ride a killer whale in it,” he insisted. “With a trident.”

Life is imitating art for Baby Mama star Amy Poehler: She's expecting a baby of her own.
Just a day after the comedian's new film, in which she plays a clueless surrogate mom, hit the top of the box office, the 36-year-old has announced she is pregnant with Arrested Development star Will Arnett's first child.
The baby is due in the fall, their spokesman Lewis Kay confirms.
Baby Mama rocketed to the top of the charts after debuting with $18.3 million during its opening weekend.
COPYRIGHT 2008 WORLD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS NETWORK LTD. All Global Rights Reserved.

Horton Hears a Who may not be as high-profile as say The Cat in the Hat or How the Grinch Stole Christmas but it is equally beloved. Thankfully the script doesn’t overcomplicate things but rather keeps to a basic theme of acceptance and staying true to yourself no matter what the consequences. The story centers on one particularly sweet and imaginative elephant named Horton (Jim Carrey) living in the jungle of Nool who hears a faint cry coming from a tiny speck of dust floating through the air. Since only he can hear it because of his super-giant ears Horton quickly finds out it’s an entire city called Whoville nestled deep within the speck. And because “a person’s a person no matter how small ” this gives Horton the justification for transporting said speck now resting on a clover to a safer spot despite the ridicule and threats from his fellow Nool denizens. Meanwhile the mayor of Whoville (Steve Carell) in constant communication with Horton is having difficulty convincing the town's people they might be in danger of being squashed--or eaten or blown away into the far reaches. But the mayor shouldn’t be worried; Horton’s motto--“an elephant’s faithful 100 percent”--means the kindly pachyderm will stop at nothing to accomplish his task. Jim Carrey as a childlike wildly imaginative elephant? Steve Carell as a furry figurehead who likes being everybody’s friend? Imagine that. They both probably could have played it straight without the animation and it would have worked--but the CGI certainly adds to their performances. As a Seuss regular Carrey’s usual manic behavior is well-harnessed within the extra folds of elephant skin and Horton’s optimistic outlook is infectious. For example he doesn’t exactly know what 'ASAP' means but he’s pretty sure it means “Act Swiftly Awesome Pachyderm!” That might just be a better acronym. Carell as Mr. Mayor of Whoville is also an upbeat fellow who cherishes his job his cute wife (Amy Poehler) his 96 daughters and especially his only son Jo Jo (Jesse McCartney) but when it comes time to save the town the mayor is all action. Also included in the A-list cast is Seth Rogen as a hyperactive rodent-type and Horton’s BFF; Will Arnett as a molting evil vulture; and Carol Burnett as the snooty Kangaroo Nool jungle’s resident naysayer and mob instigator. It’s just another collection of eclectic voices that work well together. Animating Dr. Seuss is a definitely the key to a successful big-screen adaptation which up to this point hasn’t been done before. One has to wonder why. Yes seeing Jim Carrey decked out in green fur as the Grinch was quite a spectacle--even Mike Myers as the Cat in the Hat took some initiative. But seriously what better way to re-create Dr. Seuss than with CGI? Veteran Pixar animator Jimmy Hayward (Monsters Inc. Toy Story 2) and newcomer Steve Martino take the helm with Horton Hears a Who and paint us all the wacky and wonderful sights and sounds of a Seuessian world. The animals in the jungle are certainly different with stripes and spots and colors not generally found in such an environ while Whoville finally looks like the real thing rather than a set design straight from an amusement park. There's even an homage to standard 2-D animation particularly Japanime when Horton fantasizes himself a martial arts hero. Classic stuff. Simply there’s really no way they could go back to live-action Dr. Seuss when there are no limits to the imagination he inspires with animation.

Reese Witherspoon is to play a giant in a new animated battle movie.
The Oscar-winning actress will team up with Hugh Laurie, Seth Rogen and Kiefer Sutherland, among others, to voice quirky characters in Dreamworks' upcoming film Monsters vs. Aliens.
Witherspoon's character, Susan Murphy, becomes a 50-foot monster, dubbed Ginormia, after she's hit by a meteor from outer space.
She's captured by the U.S. military and taken to a top-secret compound, where other 'monsters' are kept.
These include the insect-headed Dr. Cockroach (Laurie) and half-ape/half-fish Missing Link (Will Arnett). Sutherland will voice the aptly named General W.R. Monger.
The monsters team up to attack invading aliens.
COPYRIGHT 2008 WORLD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS NETWORK LTD. All Global Rights Reserved.

Actor Jim Carrey has joined the $13 million comedy Pierre Pierre. The film is a politically incorrect story about a self-indulgent French nihilist who moves a stolen painting from Paris to London.
Jason Reitman, the Oscar-nominated director of 2007’s breakout hit Juno, is attached to direct, according to trade papers Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.
The script for Pierre Pierre, written by Edwin Cannistraci and Frederick Seton, set off a bidding war in Hollywood before being purchased by Twentieth Century Fox specialty division Fox Atomic for $1 million.
Carrey, who is currently shooting A Christmas Carol for director Robert Zemeckis, will next appear--by voice only--in the animated version of Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!. The film also features the voices of Steve Carell, Carol Burnett, Will Arnett, Dane Cook and Isla Fisher, among others.
After that, he’ll star in Yes Man, from The Break-Up director Peyton Reed. In the film, Carrey plays a man who has challenged himself to say yes to everything for a year. Zooey Deschanel, Danny Masterson and Terence Stamp also star.
As for Reitman, he will next produce the cheerleader-from-hell comedy-thriller Jennifer's Body, which Karyn Kusama (Girlfight) is directing. The script for Jennifer’s Body was written by Juno’s Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody.

Set in 1976 an arrogant doofus--who loves booze partying and women--buys an underdog professional basketball team and basically runs it into the ground until he is inspired to take his rag-tag team all the way to the NBA. Sound familiar? Semi-Pro is pretty much a mixture of every other Will Ferrell movie. He plays Jackie Moon a one-hit wonder who buys the Flint Michigan Tropics off the proceeds of his hit song “Love Me Sexy.” and tries to coach them even playing on the team. But he ends up dragging them down to last place with his promotional antics. And when the wild and crazy ABA basketball league--known for its slam dunk contests--is about to merge with the all-powerful NBA the Tropics only have one shot to make the cut. Can they pull themselves together in time? This is an underdog sports movie after all. It’s really the same old Will Ferrell shtick in Semi-Pro. Sometimes it’s hilarious but unfortunately after Anchorman Kicking &amp; Screaming Talladega Nights and Blades of Glory much of it is rehash. Tiresome rehash. Nevertheless Ferrell has surrounded himself with another eclectic crew mixing some old favorites with new faces: old Ferrell cronies include David Koechner as the ABA commissioner and Will Arnett as a Tropics sports announcer while the newbies include Andre Benjamin as Clarence “Coffee” Black the Tropics star player and Woody Harrelson as Ed Monix a veteran player Moon brings in to help the team. Think of Monix as Bull Durham’s Crash Davis who once played in the show but has been demoted to the B leagues. Oddly enough Harrelson actually brings some dignity to the otherwise silly proceedings. Veteran executive producer Kent Alterman who has overseen such diverse films as Balls of Fury and Little Children helms his first feature film with Semi-Pro--and that’s basically how the film comes off: semi-professional. Alterman probably figured he only had to point and shoot which is mostly the case and doesn’t do anything above and beyond. The real effort comes from the script written by comedy veteran Scot Armstrong (Old School Starsky &amp; Hutch). The first half of the film is pure Will Ferrell non sequitur fodder--beginning with Moon singing his hit “Love Me Sexy” (lyrics also included is “Lick Me Sexy” and “Hump Me Sexy”) and the obligatory scene of Moon sitting around with his buddies saying “nutty things because they’re not true.” Then there’s the bear wrestling scene. Ferrell must have a thing for the big furry animals (remember the bear pit in Anchorman?) Unfortunately the outrageousness lessens in the second half of the film becoming your straight forward underdog movie. If Semi-Pro is a huge hit Ferrell won't stop making these movies; but if it falls flat maybe he'll think of ways to reinvent himself. One can only hope.

In the opening scene of Wristcutters we see twentysomething Zia (Patrick Fugit) cleaning his room for what appears to be the first time in ages; it’s also the last. He isn’t straightening up for a guest or for the hell of it but rather to leave a clean room behind when he slits his wrist moments later. Cut to Kamikaze Pizza the restaurant where Zia works in what he thinks is purgatory. The only way in is by committing suicide and the only way out is if there was a mismanagement in your death circumstances and you wound up there by accident. Zia hates every second of it and is happy to find someone in Eugene (Shea Whigham) with whom he can commiserate over beers at the local dive bar—which is really the only place to go anyway. The afterlife brightens up even further when Zia gets word that his ex-girlfriend back on Earth Desiree (Leslie Bibb) has offed herself too and is er descending upon the area. So Zia and Eugene go on a road trip through the most desolate highways and byways you’ve never seen in an attempt to track down Zia’s lone post-suicide regret. Along the way they pick up a hitchhiker Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon) who believes she’s there by mistake as well as a very twisted sort of enlightenment. It’s always impressive when actors are able to acutely grasp the most complex scripts and their subtext (i.e. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and the gang from Wristcutters is in that rare company. Fugit who broke out in 2000’s Almost Famous and has remained well under the radar since is the oddest of protagonists—a suicide “victim ” if you will whose afterlife you’re rooting for—and it’s hard to think of another actor who could pull off what he does here. It's because he’s somehow compellingly blasé which is obviously no easy feat and is clearly as lost post-life as he was during it. Sossamon (A Knight's Tale) is spunky quirky and unpredictable in a way that’ll be as attractive to viewers as it is to Zia. There really is something troubled and normal about her character that adds potential validity to Mikal’s claims of not belonging in this apparent purgatory. Rising star Whigham (All the Real Girls) as the heavily Russian Eugene rounds out the trio of roadtrippers with initial comic relief followed later by dramatic relief. Two of the more Bizarro performances we’ve seen in a long time come appropriately from a flying Tom Waits (whose record Zia puts on in the opening scene to die to) and Will Arnett possibly as the messiah. Who needs a huge budget when you have a huge imagination like Wristcutters’ Croatian writer/director Goran Dukic does? And what a perfect premise to have no money for because the afterlife he dreams up is a wasteland of nothingness where traffic-less roads stretch forever possibly as a punishment. But it’s not all about visuals or lack thereof in this adaptation of an Israeli short story (Kneller’s Happy Campers) by Etgar Keret even though the film’s most arresting scene features a deserted beach at sunset. See Wristcutters is a genuine romantic comedy under the guise of a grim deed and ramshackle no-budget “indie-ness”: The comedy is everywhere albeit very dry and romance is something of a Holy Grail for which the characters are unwittingly searching. But don’t write off Dukic’s effort as whimsical or obtuse because after some (literally) supernatural twists towards the end Wristcutters turns profound—in a way that is wholly unpretentious and thus surprising for an independent film.

“Story” is a pejorative term when applied to The Comebacks. The entire concept of the film is basically an excuse to string together and spoof famous scenes from a variety of sports movies including Field of Dreams Bend It Like Beckham Seabiscuit Remember the Titans Rudy Invincible Stick It Drumline et al. David Koechner stars as Lambeau Fields the worst coach in the history of sports who takes one more stab at gridiron glory when he agrees to coach Heartland State University’s luckless football squad. Needless to say this assemblage of losers misfits and malcontents is turned into a winning team under Coach’s somewhat unorthodox tutelage. Unlike most coaches Fields encourages his players to cut class take drugs drink to excess and behave as badly as he does. It all culminates in the championship game (“The Toilet Bowl”) between Coach Fields’ Comebacks and the mighty Invincibles coached by Fields’ one-time friend-turned-rival Freddie Wiseman (Carl Weathers). Despite being down 35-0 at halftime the Comebacks...well you can guess the rest. The collective enthusiasm of the cast goes a long way toward keeping The Comebacks watchable. Koechner enjoying his first big-screen lead has a likable lunk-headed quality that makes Coach Fields an endearing idiot. Melora Hardin scores too as his neglected wife and Brooke Nevin is a looker as their rebellious teenage daughter who also happens to be a gymnastics wiz (Stick It anyone?). Weathers a one-time pro-football player before stardom (in Rocky beckoned) has a good time playing the duplicitous Coach Wiseman and some of the more memorable members of the Comebacks include Matthew Lawrence Jackie Long Noureen DeWulf and Robert Ri’chard. A lot of familiar faces turn up in cameo roles: Will Arnett Dax Shepard Jonathan Gries Kerri Kenney Jillian Grace Eric Christian Olsen Stacy Kiebler Frank Caliendo (doing his impressions of John Madden and Al Michaels) and Andy Dick whose role as the referee during the climactic football game isn’t big enough for him to be as truly annoying as he can be. (That’s a good thing.) Not surprisingly a number of real-life sports personalities turn up in cameos as well: Dennis Rodman (as a prison warden no less!) Michael Irvin Eric Dickerson Lawrence Taylor John Salley Chris Rose and Bill Buckner (reprising his infamous error from the 1986 World Series). Director Tom Brady not to be mistaken for the New England Patriots quarterback previously directed the 2002 Rob Schneider vehicle The Hot Chick. This is unquestionably an improvement. The Comebacks may be dumb--intentionally so--but it’s never dull. There are a good number of groans along with laughs but the film never really runs out of steam. The football scenes are surprisingly well-rendered and are realistic enough that they could easily have come from a straightforward football movie--without the punch lines of course. There’s a pretty even ratio between the gags that work and the ones that don’t and the film’s formula seems to be: When all else fails hit below the belt with repeated crotch jokes. Those looking for a sophisticated highbrow comedy should look elsewhere.

Voiced the character of Mr. Perkins in the animated film "Despicable Me"

Cast opposite Will Ferrell and Woody Harrelson in the 1970s-era sports comedy "Semi-Pro"

Co-starred with Christina Applegate and Maya Rudolph on the NBC comedy "Up All Night"

Summary

A central character on Fox's offbeat comedy "Arrested Development" (Fox, 2003-06), Will Arnett's eccentric George Oscar "GOB" Bluth II was an audience favorite that helped draw in cult-like devotees to the show. His portrayal of the middle-aged, aspiring magician and disliked son of a wealthy Southern California family marked Arnett's first high-profile acting role, though he had previously made a career as a voiceover artist. The show's success with the "alternative comedy" crowd set the tone for Arnett's future in quirky film projects where his clean cut, 1950s looks made his smug villains and overconfident dimwits all the more subversively funny. He was often paired onscreen with his wife, Amy Poehler, to great comic effect, especially in the pair's roles opposite Will Ferrell and Jon Heder in the sports send-up "Blades of Glory" (2007). Arnett found further success voicing animated family hits like "Ice Age: The Meltdown" (2006)" and "Horton Hears a Who" (2008), as well as in mainstream romantic comedy features with "When in Rome" (2010). Arnett even managed the impossible - stealing scenes from comic powerhouse Alec Baldwin in his role of Devon Banks, the corporate and closeted gay competition of Jack Donaghy (Baldwin) to run General Electric on the Emmy-winning sitcom "30 Rock" (NBC, 2006-2013). Thanks to his infectious roles on "Arrested Development," "30 Rock" and "Up All Night" (NBC, 2011-12), Arnett had finally come into his own as a proven comedic commodity.

Married Aug. 29, 2003 after three years together; Appeared together in "Arrested Development" (Fox), "Blades of Glory" (2007) and "Horton Hears a Who!" (2008); Separated September 2012 after nine years of marriage